'City can afford to build £16.8m pool'

Oxford City Council deputy leader Ed Turner said the Blackbird Leys development was needed, as keeping Temple Cowley Pools open would be ‘throwing good money after bad’.

The Temple Road pool was heavily subsidised and not energy efficient, he said.

Mr Turner added: “It is about priorities and we think maintaining a high quality pool in the south east of the city is such a priority that we will manage to do it, providing tenders come in within what we have been advised to expect.”

The council is budgeting for the scheme to cost £16.8m over 25 years. This includes work by outside consultants.

Mr Turner said the only other option would be to close Temple Cowley and not provide the new pool – an option the Labour-run council was not prepared to take.

The scheme’s affordability was yesterday called into question ahead of today’s Comprehensive Spending Review, in which the Government will outline £83bn in cuts to public spending.

Green city councillor Nuala Young, who represents St Clement’s ward, said the authority should wait until it had a clear picture of its finances before pushing ahead with any new pool project.

She added: “When we are in a perilous position economically we should not go investing in consultants for something that may never be realised.”

She said Temple Cowley Pools should be refurbished instead.

A bid to reverse the decision was defeated at a meeting of councillors on Monday night.

Campaigners called for it to stay, while opposition councillors wanted a new facility on the existing site. The new Leys complex will open in autumn 2012.

After the meeting, campaigner Jane Alexander said: “If there is less money to spend then surely you spend it on mending the coat you are wearing. You don’t go and buy a new one.”

The Temple Cowley site will be sold for an estimated £1.5m to help fund the Leys scheme.

The council’s executive board will examine tenders in December.